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Ever wonder what it would be like to be a fly on the wall during the construction of Disneyland? Or perhaps a mouse in the wall?

Imagineer Tony Baxter’s presentation from 2011’s D23 expo gives a tour of the process behind constructing the iconic Anaheim wonderland. You get to watch the attention to detail that helped set Disneyland apart from your average podunk amusement park — as Boing Boing points out, it features “scenes of Imagineers lovingly adding scorchmarks to the sails of the Pirates of the Caribbean galleon with a blowtorch, construction workers tightrope-walking on the Monorail beam” and more. There may be a lack of safety precautions as Imagineers rip open holes in sails with one hand while they hold a blowtorch in the other.

You could argue it almost borders on madness — they brought in an astronomy expert to make sure the details on the Moon were just right, as an artist sits by and paints more of the details of Space Mountain.

While it’s Baxter’s presentation, he opens with about 15 minutes of black-and-white footage in a film that he lets speak for itself from before Disneyland’s opening, then transitions into color footage that he narrates and provides context to himself from the park’s early days.

Watch the footage up above to see the sails raised for Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney chilling out in the Adventureland Swiss Family Treehouse and much more.

Previously in Without A Net

Looking below the radar of pop culture in L.A. and beyond. We bring you what's next, what's trending, what people are talking about and more. Follow lead Without A Net blogger Mike Roe at @MikeRoe on Twitter.